When Is It Time To Have A Plumber Upgrade Or Replace Your Plumbing Fixtures? | Oak Ridge, TN
Monday, August 30th, 2021
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When you visit friends and relatives, especially those who have owned their home for decades, you sometimes see plumbing fixtures that might be reproductions of classic styles, but you suspect they’re actually originals. Is there a time when it’s a good idea to replace faucets, sinks, toilets, tubs, and showers? Why would you need to do that? Are there practical reasons as well as style-related? Should you wait until you remodel your bathroom or kitchen? At My Professional Plumber in Oak Ridge, TN, we replace and update our customers’ fixtures for many different reasons, whether it’s an emergency service visit for a broken faucet or a coordinated styling as part of a renovated master bath. We also make changes to accommodate household members who need accessible fixtures due to disabilities, and modern kitchen faucets that save water, make cooking more convenient and even work with smart home technology. Our plumbers can help make your home a more comfortable, fun, or interesting place to live.
Several Different Factors: Age, Activity, Style, Technology
After 15 or 20 years of service, many faucets and other fixtures are beginning to show their age. This is especially true if you have untreated hard water, which homes in Tennessee tend to. Having our experts install a water softener can help limited the corrosion due to hard water, as well as providing other water quality benefits. How much use a fixture has is part of the picture too, such as a guest bathroom where the plumbing is used only occasionally, versus a family bathroom that serves four or more family members several times a day. If you like to redecorate, your new style in a remodeled bathroom will probably lead you to have our plumber replace fixtures, sinks, and other hardware as well. Technology might also motivate you to make changes, such as faucets with long-lasting ceramic washers that eliminate the need for periodic faucet maintenance that rubber washers require. Paddle-style controls that don’t need a twisting motion can be convenient for family members, or even touchless faucet activation that saves water as well as being easy to operate. For toilets, there are a number of new technologies that save water and flush more vigorously using accumulated air pressure that might make replacement attractive. Ask our plumbers about new options for your bathroom that meet your evolving requirements or interests.
Wear and Damage
Inexpensive fixtures or ones that are serving an active family can be broken or damaged, or receive excess wear from the rough operation and need replacing simply because they had a rugged life. Even if you can’t see damage such as broken handles and chipped enamel around sink drains, you’ll probably see evidence of wear such as leaks, puddles on the floor or inside bathroom vanities, strange sounds when the valves are operated, or water stains below the unit from past puddles, possibly extending to appear as stains on the ceiling of the floor below. Even if you’re still getting acceptable service from your fixtures, you may be risking further damage as they get older and leak more, and an increasing number of emergency plumbing visits from your plumber might be a sign that it’s time to make some changes as well.
Newer fixtures usually have ways of conserving water, such as reduced-flow showerheads, modern low-consumption toilets, and even faucets that automatically turn on and then shut off while you lather up or brush your teeth. Take a moment to think about how you use each faucet and valve, and see if you’ve adapted to malfunctions. You might be overtightening the hot water faucet, leaving a sticking valve open while you brush your teeth because it’s a hassle to turn off or spend an excessive amount of time adjusting your shower temperature because the aging mixer valve operates strangely and unreliably now. In the worst case, you might even find your shower temperature fluctuating because of valve problems. Cracked toilets need replacing as a unit, and if you’re experiencing tile problems due to water leaks behind them, it’s time to renew your plumbing and retile before mold sets in.
Think About Your Hot Water, Too
The replacement cycle for your hot water heater is not that different from many fixtures, so it’s worth thinking about when you’re looking to remodel or upgrade the bathroom. Our plumbers provide annual water heater inspections that can help extend the life of your unit and keep your hot water supply reliable and fresh. Without proper maintenance, your tank is more likely to corrode, and bacteria may grow without the proper prevention device in place. You may also find that it’s hard to tell whether your shower valve is at fault or the hot water heater is when you are getting unreliable hot water flow. There are a variety of problems that require a professional to diagnose including partial heating of your tank water when part of the heating components are malfunctioning.
A Word About Instant Hot Water in Your Bathroom
Hot water heaters are set to a temperature that’s safe for everyone in the house, including seniors and children, so they can avoid scalding. This may not provide the optimum temperature for all household members, especially after passing through uninsulated pipes. For kitchens and bathrooms, especially those a long distance from the main water heater, a small inline tankless water heater can provide instant-on hot water that speeds up your morning routine and saves water and energy as well. When you’re remodeling and replacing fixtures, it’s a great way to improve your master bedroom convenience in particular.
For Home Plumbing Inspections and Fixture Upgrades, My Professional Plumber in Oak Ridge, TN
Our plumbers serve the Oak Ridge, TN area with emergency plumbing service, routine plumbing repairs, and improvements making homes more livable and modern. We are glad to check the condition of your current plumbing to note current and upcoming issues. Give our plumbers at My Professional Plumber a call and we’ll help.